Beyond The Door
by NotNearlyAMuggle
Summary: This is AU. The trio has a fourth member from a pure-blood family. Join them in their fifth year as they tackle Umbridge, relationships, family trauma and their friendship being tested. Please read it. i am terrible at writing summaries!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This chapter has just been fixed because what I had originally written sounded as if it had been written by a two year old. I hope I have at least advanced to sounding like a six year old now as I like what I have written. This fic is AU so it is different and similar to the books in different ways. My character is completely my own and she has not been made to be liked because there are some parts of my character even I don't like. Please read this story and leave a review on ways I could improve or ways in which you liked or disliked my story and I will try to sort them out. This might be the only chapter that has been fixed so if you read the next chapter and I sound like a two year old again you'll understand why. Also there may be small plot holes or differences in the next chapters from the first because I have added or taken away from what I had originally written.**

**If you have read this far I wish for you to enjoy my story and please review, favourite or subscribe. It makes me very happy when someone does. **

Chapter 1: Fighting Exhaustion.

I made my way slowly up the stairs. Dragging my trunk behind me and carrying my beautiful and tiny white cat across my shoulders. I looked up at the door in front of me and as I started to push it, it swung open and a mass of frizzy hair engulfed me.

"Thank god! Are you alright Brandy? You look terrible! You're all…" Hermione Granger stopped talking as she had obviously thought better of what she was going to say. Instead she just led me to sit down on one of the twin beds in the disgusting room.

My cousin, Ginny was lounging on a bed opposite the one Hermione had showed me to and her brother (and one of my best friends, along with Harry Potter and Hermione) Ron was sitting on the floor at the end of it. He got up as I came in and sat down beside me on the bed. I squeezed his knee in thanks and laid my head on his shoulder. He wrapped a protective arm around my shoulders.

"Hi," I said to my friend and cousins.

My whole body was shaking and I couldn't look anyone in the eye. Ginny made no attempt to even look at me but I saw Hermione nudge her and she got up and gave me a brief hug. We had fallen out last term and she was still being incredibly difficult.

There was a loud CRACK and two more redheaded Weasleys appeared beside the bed; twins, Fred and George. They sat down on the floor across from me.

"Right Nactorn," Fred said eagerly, "spill it." George punched his arm in response to his non-sensitivity but I smirked at his attempt at lightening the mood.

"Fine," Fred glared at George and pretended to be in pain while trying to look apologetic making me snort in approval. "In your own time, dear Miss Nactorn."

"From the beginning?" I asked them.

"We don't need to know the way in which your mother gave birth to you but, in a way, yes, from the beginning." George said cheekily and I shook my head at him.

"Right, so, on the way home from King's cross I didn't say anything," I began my story quietly so that everyone had to move closer to hear. I plucked up the little energy I had left, tucked my jet black hair behind my ear and continued a little louder, "My dad kept looking at me. He knew Harry would have already told me what happened in the graveyard with You-Know-Who and he knew I would have believed every word. He also knew I knew he was there so when I got home he locked me in my room and wouldn't let me send any letters. He kept trying to get information out of me by torturing me so I stole my family owl and sent a letter to Draco..." Ginny let out a small, quiet sound that sounded like a hiss and the rest of the Weasley's faces showed a look of disgust, Hermione did stay straight faced, though, I'm sure she was feeling the same way as the Weasley's. We had started going out last year (the main cause of Ginny's bitterness) and none of them were in any way keen on him. "he replied pretty quickly..." I continued and launched into my story.

I looked around my bedroom and shoved as many of my books, clothing and valuables as I could into my trunk. I read over the letter on my bed that I received this morning.

_Brandy,_

_I wish I could be there with you. It kills me to think that all I can do is write. My mum and dad just found out that we're together and they are not particularly happy. I'm on lockdown. I can't even leave my room without one of the portraits running off and getting my parents. I feel like a bloody two year old. Anyway you need to get out, if that much wasn't already clear, see if Granger or Weasley will let you stay with them, I don't like the thought of you spending your summer with either but it's better than staying at home. I'll write to you soon. Be careful what you send to me I can't be sure my parents aren't reading my letters. _

_Draco. _

_P.S I'd prefer if you stayed with Weasley at least he's family and you'll be with wizards and not with muffles that can't defend themselves._

_P.P.S. Please don't ask Potter, the thought of you being "looked after" by muggles is revolting (which is why I'd prefer Weasley over Granger.) Sorry but it is. Especially the muggles he stays with. I don't think you would ask them but just incase._

I put Draco's letter in my back pocket just as I heard the sound of boots clumping up the stairs. I shoved my trunk back under the bed and grabbed an old Daily Prophet off of the floor and lounged on my bed pretending to read it. I made my mind as blank as possible but kept the disgraceful article from the prophet floating about in my thoughts and I made my opinions of it clear.

CRASH!

"Brandy," My father's voice was calm and held an air of power about it. However his eyes were blazing with anger, "What were you doing?"

"Reading," I restrained from adding the "obviously" to the end of that statement. I could feel him entering my thoughts but I kept my mind clear and thought: "Dumbledore: mad or Bad" and then "stupid Fudge, too blind to see that Dumbledore is telling the truth."

"Was it your mother who taught you Occlumency? Did she tell you it was harder after being weakened? Answer me idiot! CRUCIO!" he pointed his wand at me and I felt a searing pain rush through my body but I refused to scream. I grinded my teeth together and clenched my fists and focused on keeping my mind blank.

"I'm not showing you anything!" I said through my teeth to my father, "So don't even try! Don't blame Mum either, she didn't teach me!"

"Your mother is dead! So I'll blame her if I want to and I don't care who taught you," my dad snarled. He pointed his wand and muttered "CRUCIO!" at me again before leaving my room and bolting the door. The locks weren't a problem but it was where to go if I left that was and how would I go anywhere? I can't use the flew network because I'll risk getting caught! Obviously I can't apparate and my trunk's too heavy to fly with. So I pulled out some square parchment and wrote on four different pieces of it:

_Help. Please. B._

I folded them up and addressed them to: Draco, Ron, Hermione and Harry. I attached each of the letters to the leg of my family's tawny owl, that had been hidden in my wardrobe, and let him fly out of my window. My cat Buttons jumped up onto my bed as I joined him he climbed up to his favourite resting place – across my shoulders - and purred softly to calm my nerves.

My dad made a few more trips into my room that night leaving me horribly exhausted and sore.

I woke up later, lying on my bed. I was so weak I could hardly move. Buttons was perched on my windowsill along with Draco's eagle owl, Ron's small extremely excited owl, Harry's snowy owl and each of them had a letter attached to its leg. I slowly made my way to collect them and Button purred as I brought them back to my bed to read.

First I opened Draco's:

_Brandy,_

_I said you should get out! Please just leave. Use the Knight Bus, go anywhere! I wish I could be of more help, I'm sorry. _

_Draco_

The Knight Bus! What kind of witch forgets about the Knight bus! It was just a matter of somewhere to go after I got on it. Next I opened Harry's letter which was scribbled on a piece of old parchment that had one of last year's herbology essay's on it. Obviously he'd forgotten to buy new parchment for over the holidays.

_And I thought I was having a bad holiday. It must be really bad for YOU to ask for help. That's almost as rare as Hermione admitting she's wrong. Unfortunately your cry for help to me is not successful although I'm sure that didn't come as a surprise to you. All I've been getting told this whole summer, even ironically from Snuffles, is to stay out of trouble and to "watch what I put in writing." Not much help. Sorry. I've a feeling Ron and Hermione are together though so you'll probably be in luck with them. _

_Harry._

I smiled at the letter and I agreed with him, I didn't have much hope. Really I just wanted to be able to read a letter from someone having a summer almost as bad as mine. I opened the last letter that I had expected would be from Ron or Hermione but I was surprised at the neat scrawl that covered the page that didn't belong to either of my best friends.

_Dear Miss Nactorn,_

_Mr Weasley and Miss Granger have shown me your letter and we have agreed that you should get out of your house. _

_If you can manage to get on the Knight Bus to The Leaky Cauldron, a familiar face will meet you there at three o'clock tomorrow morning and he/she will bring you to the same place as Ron and Hermione. _

_Please don't write back, we will know if you are having trouble if you don't make it by three. Leave a note to tell your father you are safe even though he probably won't care and I presume he will get rather angry._

_Bring with you your trunk (packed for school as I assume you won't be going back to your house before then) and your cat which — I have been informed — is called Buttons try and disguise him a little though as he is white and theat may stand out a little. _

_Yours sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore. _

_P.S Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley have asked me to remind you of the "muggle hairpin trick" I am assuming they mean the very useful trick that allows you to open doors._

I re-read the letter, put it in my pocket and rounded up the last of my belongings into my trunk. I looked at my watch; it read twenty-five minutes to two. I watched the owls as they all flew away, I would reply to Draco and Harry's letters when I got to wherever I was going to stay. I scrawled a quick and emotionles goodbye on a piece of parchment and took two hairpins off of my dresser. I used them to unlock my door the way Fred and George Weasley had shown me when I first started Hogwarts and I heard the door unlock. Slowly I pushed it open. I threw on my black travelling cloak (which helped by my black hair successfully cover the whole of Buttons, who was still across my shoulders) and picked up my luggage from the floor. Quietly I made my way down the stairs and out the front door of my massive, prison-like house. I hauled my trunk out along the driveway and onto the road at the end of it. I pulled out my unusually short wand from my pocket and held it out onto the road. Luckily there was not a spell you had to say or I'd be stuck. As I put it back there was a BANG and a purple, triple decker bus came to a halt right in front of me.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, I'm Stan and I'll be your 'ost for tonight!" the man — well boy — looked up at me, "Oh, sorry, may I help you with your luggage beautiful?" Stan Shunpike sauntered down from the steps of the knight bus to pick up my trunk. His voice was cocky and jeering and Buttons hissed in my ear.

"Thanks," I smirked. Secretly, inside I was grateful that he had offered though because I struggled enough pulling it down the drive never mind up the stairs. I took out fourteen silver coins from my pocket and handed them to Stan.

"Where you goin' then?" Shunpike asked sitting himself down on a bed as the large purple bus shot off full speed again. The beds and luggage started to fly about but I was smart enough to get a hold of one of the silver bars attached to the window of the bus before it started moving. Buttons hissed in my ear as we started moving, he hated travelling by Knight Bus almost as much as he hated Stan.

"The Leaky Cauldron," I replied and pretended not to see Stan patting the bed next to him. "please." I added with a smirk. My body was telling me to sit down but I didn't want to seem as weak as I felt and also, Stan creeped me out, so I fought the urge to collapse and stayed standing.

"Alrigh'. Ern! The Leaky Cauldron for Miss Nactorn, please?" Shunpike shouted to the driver then turned his attention back to me, "We jus' 'ave to make a quick stop to St Mungo's to drop a young lad who 'ad a small problem wiff a cursed top 'at."

I raised an eyebrow in amusement and sipped my hot chocolate (which my fourteen sickles had bought me.)That sounded like the kind of prank Fred and George would like to play on someone.

"So — you runnin' away then?" Stan asked.

"No," I said sarcastically, "I'm just going for a butterbeer at half two in the morning!"

"You don't really believe all this stupid stuff 'arry Potter 'as bin sayin', do you?"

"'Course I do," I glared at him.

"Well, I fink it's a load of rubbish." Stan said with a shrug. I shook my head in silent frustration.

There was another BANG and the Knight Bus stopped still in front of the small store that I knew was the entrance to St Mungo's wizarding hospital. A man or boy, I couldn't tell, made down the stairs with a bit of trouble, due to the fact his head was completely covered in a black top hat. He stumbled out onto the street and the bus sped away. We flew through London and in practically no time at all we were stopped outside The Leaky Cauldron.

"Bye, Miss Nactorn I 'ope I'll see you soon," Stan winked at me as I stood up to leave.

"Don't count on it," I muttered and Buttons purred in approval.

I stepped off of the bus, lugging my trunk behind me and it sped away as I walked into The Leaky Cauldron Tom, the barman, came rushing towards me as soon as he noticed me, with a butterbeer in his hand, already knowing my order, I paid him and sat down at my usual table. I checked my watch and as the second hand ticked onto the twelve and it turned three o'clock the fireplace lit up emerald green. Out of the fireplace stepped a hook nosed, greasy haired man in black robes. Severus Snape. I breathed a sigh of relief that Dumbledore hadn't sent Uncle Arthur or Aunt Molly, though that would have been less suspicious. He approached me slowly and when he was close enough he slyly handed me a small slip of paper.

"Don't read it until we are outside." Snape hissed into my ear. "Have you got everything?" his voice rose to a normal tone when he asked this question and I nodded. Even though I knew Snape could see through my "mind barrier" and honestly I didn't mind him being in my head, I still kept my mind nice and blank. "You're getting good at that but remember it was me who taught you Occlumency." Snape said this casually but I heard a hint of something that felt like pride in his voice. I smiled slightly.

As we got outside I read the piece of paper, on it was three words in the same writing as on the letter that was delivered by Ron's owl.

It read; _12 Grimmauld Place._

"Memorise it! Then give the paper to me," Snape whispered. I handed over the paper and it burst into flames in his hand. "Grab your trunk and tell your cat to hold on in side the cloak."I've seen you fly before but do you feel strong enough to fly tonight? We might be flying for over an hour?" I thought about it and then nodded, flying came naturally to me do I nodded. I was positive I wouldn't pass out while flying. "Well then get out your broom — good." I watched as Snape attached my trunk to his broom.

"Okay, when you're ready mount your broom and stay on my left at all times."

We kicked off from the ground and began our journey. We flew off over fields and roads and houses having to change course occasionally to make sure no Muggles could see us and to make sure we weren't being followed. By the time we reached Grimmauld Place I could feel my exhaustion taking over. My aunt Molly greeted me warmly and though she thanked Snape there was a wary tone to her voice as though she still didn't trust him.

"...and you know what happened next." I finished my story.

Ron gaped at me, Hermione started muttering under her breath, Ginny was glaring into space and trying desperately to look un-interested in me and Fred and George were taking it in turns to make a ball of string appear at either side of Buttons who was beginning to look slightly dizzy. I hit them both in the back of the head and Buttons made his way back under my curtain of hair.

"So what's going to happen to Malfoy then?" Hermione asked handing back the letters I had passed her. At this everyone looked up (including Ginny) my friends and family very rarely brought up the fact Draco and I were together, my aunt and uncle plainly ignored it, Hermione was the most comfortable with the topic though.

"Well, he'll have to stay with his parents for the time being," I answered carefully, "his father is slightly different from mine and will probably pay no attention to him at all. His mother loves him though so she will probably just pretend I don't exist."

I could feel my voice breaking at the thought of Draco being ignored by his family but I was pretty certain he wasn't being tortured. Fred and George came and sat down either side of me.

"We'll leave you to get some rest," Fred said.

"Yeah," George said, "Did anyone tell you that you look awful?"

"It may have been mentioned," I smirked, "but thanks for telling me again."

"No problem," the twins said in unison and I shook my head in exasperation.

"Before you go," I said to them, "what is this place?"

"This is headquarters of The Order of The Phoenix. It's a society that was formed back when You-Know-Who first became powerful. It fights against him and the Death-Eaters. The actual house though, was Sirius' family home." Ron answered.

"I thought it might be something like that. It has that typical pure-blood feel to it. Sort of like my house. In fact it's very like my house."

Everyone had left as I finished talking and I watched the door as it closed behind Ron.

Then the exhaustion finally took over my body.

**A/N: Thanks for reading the first chapter of my fic and again I'd like to say sorry about my next chapters if I haven't updated them yet. I'm sure there are still type-os in my writing but I hope you understood what I meant to say. **

**If you could make me a cover for this story I would greatly appreciate it.**

**Please review, it means the world. Thanks. Cora.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Please enjoy my story and review so that I can improve. Thank you.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise…**

Chapter2

The longer I stayed at Grimmauld Place the more it felt like we were in a prison.

We (the "kids" in the house) weren't allowed to sit in on the Order of the Phoenix' meetings as we "weren't of age". Fred and George were, understandably the most annoyed at this as they were seventeen and of age therefore they _were _allowed to use magic when they were not at Hogwarts. Molls, however, didn't let them attend the meetings as they were still at school - even if they were in their last year. She just didn't want to see them hurt.

As Ron had informed me on my first night at Grimmauld Place, the house belonged to Sirius and it held many similarities to my own family's home. Like me, Sirius found himself a Gryffindor, growing up in a house full of Slytherins. He was resented and made an outcast in his own family and home. He was hated, insulted and looked down upon. He ran away at sixteen and stayed with Harry's dad and his parents. There were still parts of the house that contained The Black coat of arms, most of them were faded or completely covered in dust or dirt but there were a few that were still bright and creepy as they had been when Sirus left all those years ago (apparently). The portraits were another story. Few of them would come off of the wall, which wasn't a problem, except for the fact that the main portrait in the house was a portrait of Sirius' mother.

Mrs Black was pure-blood through and through; she hated having all of us in her beloved house. Anytime she would get disturbed she'd scream and shout insults at each of us. When I or any of the Weasleys walk past, she'd call us blood traiters and she screams that I have betrayed my family and that none of us deserve to be pure-blood. However, that is nothing compared to the way she screams at Hermione. Hermione was brought up by Muggles (non-magical people) and people like my family, Sirius' family and Draco's family (even Draco himself sometimes) don't approve of Muggleborn witches and wizards. They call Muggleborns horrible names, these particularl prejudices were getting less and less common but You-Know-Who being back was making them more common. In our second year (before I liked Draco) he called Hermione a mudblood, which means dirty blood. Ron tried to curse him but his wand backfired and he hit himself instead. Luckily enough I had and still do have quite a powerful right hook, I burst Draco's nose and lip earning me a rather long detention. It was completely worth it though.

Another thing that I hate about Grimmauld Place is the fact that I am not allowed to give Draco or Harry any information on our whereabouts or what we are doing. I can understand Dumbledore not wanting to give Draco information but Harry was the person that saw, duelled and was almost killed by You-Know-Who when he came back. It didn't seem fair to leave him out of everything. I wasn't even sure why Harry was being left in the "care" of his aunt and uncle and not being moved to Grimmauld Place. Draco understood the reasoning behind my short letters but I decided I wouldn't reply to Harry's letters at all. The only thing I told him was:

"_Make sure you read cover to cover of The Daily Prophet there isn't much about You-Know-Who but there is a lot about both you and Dumbledore. Rita Skeeter seems to have started a trend."_

Hermione was sure he was reading the whole newspaper but I knew that if I was in Harry's shoes I wouldn't look past the front cover. In fact, I hadn't been until Hermione nagged me about it.

The summer got considerably more boring as the days went on. We all helped to tidy up the disgusting house. Apparently in Sirius' absence his family's house elf (Kreacher) had made no attempt to clean, in fact he seemed to have done the opposite. There were rats everywhere and some of the rooms were impossible to enter because the stink made everyone's eyes water. I tried to go into Sirius' father's old room and soon found out that, when you touch the handle, the door tries to eat you – even though things like this happened in various rooms in my own house, it's fair to say I was still taken a bit by surprise. Fred and George had to use a considerable amount of effort to free me from the door's grasp. I was never going to live that down. Hermione also tried to enter one of the rooms (Sirius couldn't remember what it was used for) and she inhaled so much dust she sounded like a strangled cat for two days.

Kreacher was very strange. He was always muttering to himself about doing his mistress proud and how she would never have let all of these people into "The Noble House of Black". Although the elf was supposed to obey any member of the Black family he only obeyed Sirius if he shouted orders, and he never obeyed Nymphandora Tonks (an auror and an extremely clumsy member of the Order) even though she was Sirius' second cousin. We tried to make the house feel more like a home - and I tried desperately to not think of the similarities between it and my own home - but the more of the house I saw, the more I missed Draco and the more I hated the headquarters of the Order. Every room had some way of taunting you. In Ron's room there was a blank portrait which snickered at you like you were an idiot, in mine, which I shared with Hermione and Ginny there was a mirror which made snide comments about how you looked anytime you passed it. Hermione and I had finally decided to place a cloak over it, much to Ginny's disappointment who particularly enjoyed watching me be insulted by it.

The only upside of living in Grimmauld Place was getting to see the members of the Order. I knew a few of them from various Ministry visits with my dad and some I knew more personally. For example: Remus Lupin who was our Defence against the Dark Arts teacher in our third year; Sirius (obviously) who is Harry's godfather and whom I met in my third year of school when Harry, Hermione and I helped him escape the Dementors with a hippogriff named Buckbeak; Severus Snape, the Hogwarts potions master and then there was Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house and Transfiguration teacher. There were also some I was just being introduced to, one in particular: Mundungus Fletcher. He was a con-man and a thief but as he was helping Fred and George get ingredients for their many products they hope to sell when they open their joke shop, I didn't mind him much. He _was_ very sleazy though and Hermione and Ginny felt very cautious around him (although neither of them cared to admit it). I felt like he was just another stupid man, much like Stan Shunpike, although he was a little more respectful of me, whether that was because of the fact Fred had threatened to flush him down the toilet if he made any more inappropriate comments about me or if he actually felt respect towards me I would never know.

One morning about three or four weeks after arriving at headquarters, Dumbledore arrived. He was furious, angrier than I have ever seen him look. He was scary. Mundungus cowered in in front of him, Dumbledore was speaking to him in a soft tone but the rage was clear in his voice. Molly ushered them into the kitchen and cast a charm on the door so that none of the kids could hear what was happening. Hermione gave me a worried look and I felt ever so slightly sick. As we began to descend the stairs I had an idea.

"Go on without me," I said to Hermione and she nodded as I rushed back up to our room. I pulled out my trunk from bellow my bed as Buttons came to join me from where he had been sleeping on my pillow. He climbed up to my shoulders and under my hair as I rummaged through my trunk. I threw all of my clothes and books out of it and at the bottom in rows lay no less than twenty silver flasks. I looked through them until I found the one I was looking for and slid it in to the pocket of my jumper. I put everything else back in my trunk and rushed back down the stairs to the kitchen.

All of the Weasleys (minus Percy), Hermione, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, Remus, Sirius, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dedulus Diggle and Hestia Jones were gathered around the table. Just as I was about to enter Dumbledore started to leave the kitchen, he came to a halt in front of me and I looked up into his.

"Mr Malfoy has not to be told what you will learn when you go in there." He said to me in a tone so solemn and unlike him I wasn't going to argue. I was sure this also meant that whatever it was I was to be told was not good news, "and if that is your relief potion I am sure both your Aunt Molly and Sirius could use some - they seem to be in shock." He finished. It annoyed me sometimes how stupid and smart some people treated me. Even Dumbledore, he knew I wasn't nearly as bright as Hermione but I wasn't two. I wasn't going to give away information that I knew could get into the wrong hands.

I gave him a small nod but whispered back any way: "Professor, I'm sorry but Draco has a funny habit of finding things out himself. I also would rather not keep secrets from him."

"I do value that Miss Nactorn and I presume Mr Malfoy _will_ have already been told what you are about to learn so there won't be any need to put this in writing." Dumbledore's voice had a note of finality about it.

I nodded once in understanding. Even though I really didn't want to keep a secret from Draco and I hated that he assumed he would have to warn me, I trusted that Dumbledore is almost always right.

I watched my headmaster leave.

I walked into the kitchen and I looked around. Mad-Eye was talking to the members of the Order, arranging them in some sort of formation. I realised then that it was a flying formation, one normally used to make sure that each person had a clear view of where they were flying and all around them (although Moody's magical eye could do all of that on its own).

Sirius was sitting at the table - his face downcast – deep in thought, and looking very much like he was in some sort of shock. Lupin, as well as listening to Mad-Eye's instructions, was trying to comfort his friend. I walked over and sat down on Sirius' right hand side. I took an empty cup off of the table and poured four drops of my potion into it. I then asked Remus if he could fill the cup with water. He looked at me and I could see he was worried about Sirius as he filled the cup without questioning me. Instead of the liquid in the cup turning watery though, it got thicker and the concoction I had brewed myself last year - after the third task of the Triwizard Tournament - turned a bright shade of red. I told Sirius to take a mouthful and then pass it on to everybody else. He did as he was told.

As the cup was passed around the room, I watched the face of each person to take a mouthful become more relaxed. However, the members of the Order that were about to go with Moody still had worried expressions on their faces. I could tell that everything Mad-Eye was telling them was sinking in easier than before though. Finally the cup got round to the Weasleys. Hermione had already taken a sip and her face was still very worried but there was no sign of shock or terror in it. Molly looked terrible. Before the cup even got to her she tried to assure Arthur that she was alright but we could tell she wasn't. Eventually she gave up and took a drink, all the strain that was in her face disappeared and she thanked me as did all of the Order when they left five minutes later.

Potions was my best subject at school. I found it easier than anyone else in our year; in fact Snape has been taking me for advanced potions classes since the end of third year. Dumbledore asked him to teach me all he knows and already I have been creating my own potions. I was only allowed to tell Harry, Ron and Hermione during the Triwizard Tournament last year because I thought I had created one that could let you breathe under water. It did let you breathe under water but only fresh water. In the end Harry had to use Gillyweed which our friend Neville had told me about while excitedly reciting passages from his new Herbology book.

Since the beginning of last year I have also successfully brewed the Draught of Living Death which is a NEWT (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests) level potion. Being good at potions makes up for me being absolutely terrible at any subject involving spells. I've never managed to do spells properly. Snape told me once that I had a lack of vocal power but I had a lot of brainpower to make up for it. He explained that it was like my voice had no magic but my body and my brain did. That was the reason he also taught me occlumency and legilemency, he said if I couldn't do anything on the outside I could try to something on the inside.

After Arthur had made sure all of the Order was gone, he turned to me and asked: "Do you not want to know what is going on?"

"Of course I do." I smirked, "I just thought the well-being of everyone else mattered more than my own curiosity."

"Fair enough," Uncle Arthur said the corner of his lip turning up into a slight smile. He began to explain.

As it turned out, Harry had been attacked by two Dementors and had been forced to use a Patronus charm. His cousin, Dudley, was there too, so not only did Harry use underage magic but he broke the International Statute of Secrecy. In normal circumstances this would be fine, as he was in a life threatening situation but, unfortunately, this was not normal circumstances. When Harry told everyone that You-Know-Who was back, the Ministry turned against him. You-Know-Who was the darkest wizard ever to have walked the planet but just when his side was winning the war he tried to kill Harry and his parents. Unfortunately, he succeeded in killing Harry's parents but Lily, Harry's mother, refused to stand aside when He Who Must Not Be Named tried to kill Harry therefore she sacrificed her own life to save Harry's. What that meant was that when You-Know-Who finally got to killing Harry, his curse bounced off of the toddler and onto himself. However, when the curse hit him it killed his body but left behind a piece of his soul. Harry became very famous after that and saying; truthfully, that You-Know-Who has come back was taken (by the Ministry of Magic) as pleading for attention and not the truth. In The Daily Prophet they have made fun of Harry in nearly every single edition. For example whenever a really far-fetched story has come up they have added a small remark somewhere in the article which goes along the lines of "a story worthy of Harry Potter" So now when Harry goes to his hearing at the Ministry and tells them he was attacked by Dementors in Little Winging they'll probably just laugh at him. Dumbledore says that the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge is just scared and won't allow himself to believe Harry, that is why all of these stories have started.

In a huge way this was Mundungus' fault as he was supposed to be guarding Harry to make sure nothing like this happened but even then I suppose it was Dumbledore's fault for not moving him to Grimmauld place before now or the Orders fault for giving Dung a shift in the first place. Apparently Mundungus fled, to go and do some illegal cauldron trading, which no one can say was un-expected.

I suppose in a way it was better for Harry now that he was to be brought to Headquarters: he would get to see Sirius again, he would be allowed the little information that the children had been told, maybe even more as he was Harry Potter and he would be away from those annoying Muggles he lives with. That was where the Order was flying to, to get Harry and bring him back to Grimmauld Place. As much as I feared he would be incredibly angry at us for not telling him anything over the summer I was happy that he was coming. I had missed my best friend.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed this story and if you have any criticism or maybe a tiny wee bit of praise (for anyone that doesn't know "wee" means little) please review or read the next chapters and then review. Either way… PLEASE PLEASE PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EE review?**

**Thanks and I hope you enjoyed it. **

**Cora.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I don't own Harry Potter… **

**I hope you enjoy and if you do, or don't then please review feel free even to leave death threats if you think it is that bad. I hope it isn't though. Also, sorry it's kind of short…**

**Anyway without further ado: **_**Voila…**_

Chapter 3: A deal with a devil or two.

Later, I followed the Weasleys and Hermione up the stairs. Ron went into his room, Hermione copied, I would have too if the twins hadn't pulled me back. I looked at them and saw a glimpse of mischief in their eyes. I grinned and shouted into the room: "I'll be down in a minute! I have something I need to do first!"

Hermione's response was unintelligible as Fred had already grabbed my arm and apparated me up into his and George's room. The sensation of apparating was not one I welcomed. It felt like I was being sucked into a large tube of nothingness, it was a horrid feeling, my throat swelled up and I could hardly breathe. The room I entered didn't make me feel any better.

I had never been into the bedroom of the twins (in Grimmauld Place) but, just as I had suspected, it was filled with cardboard boxes filled with items I wasn't sure I wanted to go near. There was only one way to and from the door and I would have to climb over about five boxes to get there. I felt too enclosed in this room and my breathing was getting unsteady. This seemed to have been Fred's plan as he was grinning and giving me a look that said "escape if you want but you don't know what's in those boxes" Finally, I sat down on a tin seat opposite Fred _and_ George - who had also apparated into the room.

"Are you going to tell me why you have brought me up here?" I attempted to ask them but it came out as a sort of choke so I tried again, this time with half a smirk on my face.

"We were, but right now we are thoroughly enjoying watching you feel trapped in our bedroom!" Fred answered me.

"Speak for yourself," George said quickly, "I'm just enjoying her attempting to find an escape route."

"Ha! Ha!" I said sarcastically, "Well, now that you've re-discovered I'm claustrophobic and I am having trouble thinking straight. Get to the point?"

"Let me fix the enclosed space problem." George said. With that both he and Fred lifted their wands and boxes started flying around the room and piling themselves on top of each other. After about five minutes I could breathe again and there was a clear pathway to the door but Fred sat down in my way so I couldn't escape.

"What do you want?" I sighed and glared at both of them half-heartedly.

"Can't we kidnap our little cousin without having a reason for doing so?" asked Fred. I smirked.

"You know your face will stick like that!" the twins said in unison. I felt my lips break into a small smile.

"Good, now that you're attempting to smile…" George began.

"We have a business proposition for you?" Fred continued. This confused me a little. Why would the twins want to go into business with me? The last time I checked they wanted to run a joke shop and I couldn't see how I could be of help with that.

"As you know we are going to open our own joke shop…" George continued echoing my thoughts.

"But, you see, we are having minor problems with some of our ideas…" Fred did that creepy thing the twins do when they know exactly what the other one is going to say. Sometimes I wondered if they rehearsed beforehand.

"That is where you come in, we need someone to check all of our formulas and see if you can improve them…" George explained.

"And, we need you to find a cure for things that go wrong when we test our products ourselves." Fred finished.

I thought about what they were asking. I understood now why they wanted me to do it. To understand formulas you needed to be good at potions and who better than me if it's potions they want checked. Also, I assumed they didn't want people to know that I was helping them and my devious side always won when it came to helping Fred and George. For instance, last year, when Ludo Bagman conned the boys into giving him money they made me flirt with Bagman to get their money back. Unfortunately this didn't quite go to plan as Percy – the arrogant, git that deserted the Weasleys but I still have to call my cousin - found out and not only did he tell Molly and Arthur but he told Bill and Charlie. Molly, sent me a howler the next day to tell me that what I had done was very inappropriate and I was in big trouble, Bill told me that I was being incredibly stupid and got Fred and George to "keep an eye on me" (that wasn't Bill's best move) and Charlie threatened to set a Dragon on me if he ever heard of me flirting with someone that much older than me again! The worst part about all of that though was that the twins didn't even get found out! So this time when they made their "proposition" I answered them with a question.

"What's in it for me?" I looked at both of them. Clearly they had expected me to say this as neither of them twitched when George told me straight away:

"Ten percent of the profit from each sale, written credit on each of the products you help us perfect and a guaranteed job when we get premises."

"Forget the money and instead I want you to answer any questions I have for you and if, by chance, your mum finds out I've been helping you, both of you take some of the punishment." I said.

They both grinned. "Deal!" they said at the same time.

"You really are related to us aren't you, Nactorn?" Fred said proudly.

"I have no idea what you mean, Weasley." I said innocently and smirked at them.

"You had questions?" George reminded me.

"Right, first question: where did you get all of the money?" I had wanted to ask them this since I first arrived at Grimmauld Place when they introduced us to Extendable Ears. That's how we have managed to hear some of The Order's meetings but Molls found out and she got quite mad. Luckily we managed to save some so have been getting a little information. We have to be careful where we use them though as Buttons and Crookshanks (Hermione's cat) had taken to hitting them back and forth with their paws.

"I am afraid that is not our secret to share. If you can work out the source then we can tell you." George explained. This didn't make sense though, as, if I knew what or who the source was then I wouldn't need them to tell me.

"Okay, fine. Second question, how do you expect to get premises when you are stuck in school all year?" I asked, still rather confused.

"Well, it just so happens we have already put an offer on an old building in Diagon Alley," Fred told me.

It turns out the boys were more thoughtful than I gave them credit for. I looked around the room again and noticed that each of the boxes were labelled and had either a green, yellow or red stamp on the front. George noticed me looking.

"We stamp each box of products to match the how dangerous the products are. Green means they are ready to go, yellow means they are in progress and red means we need to wear masks when we open the boxes." George told me matter-of-factly. I snickered at this comment as I could just imagine Fred or George asking Ron to open a box for them and he suddenly goes loopy and declares his love for the first person he sees. This isn't that hard to imagine though as the twins played that exact trick on me last year and when they finally broke me out of my trance I was chained to a chair and I had cut off a lock of Seamus Finnigan's hair and told him I would put it in a scrapbook. I then had to find a hair re-growth potion for him to use before anyone saw his un-even haircut. Not that Seamus had minded much, at least not about the part of me "being in love with him". Draco was a different matter altogether, I had to do some serious apologising to him after that.

I opened my mouth to ask another question but the twins dragged me out of the room and shoved an Extendable Ear into my hand I put it in and as soon as I did, a huge scream came into my ears, it was Harry's voice.

Harry was back with the gang but having been stuck with his horrible relatives while we were stuck here didn't seem fair to him.

"BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHATS GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO LET ME KNOW WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING? AT LEAST BRANDY HAD THE DECENCY TO AVOID WRITING TO ME! INSTEAD OF SENDING ME STUPID LETTERS SAYING TO BE SAFE. WHAT DID YOU THINK I WAS GOING TO DO RUN AROUND IN THE STREET WITH MY WAND OUT SCREAMING TO VOLDEMORT." Beside me I felt the twins cringe at the sound of You-Know-Who's name I only just managed to stop myself.

"Harry we wanted to tell you more, we really did…" Hermione sounded close to tears and this was the thing that made me remove the Extendable Ear.

"I think my entrance will be welcomed into the conversation very dearly soon." I said to the twins and began to run down the stairs.

"Make sure he doesn't stand on you in anger, Shorty," Fred called to me and I resisted turning back and slapping him for making fun of me.

I stopped outside Ron's door just in time to here Harry shout, "ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER, WHERE THE HELL IS BRANDY ANYWAY?"

I opened the door and watched my best friend turned round his messy, dark hair and glasses just made his incredibly angry face seem more furious. I looked behind him. Hermione had silent tear running down her face and Ron had his head bowed looking at the floor.

"You were looking for me?" I greeted Harry. How good it was to have the gang back together.

**A/N: again, sorry it was so short. Please, please, please review!**

**Thanks,**

**Cora.**


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